DRAC^NA DRACO. 423 DRACONTIUS. to its heiglit. The head is crowned with short branches bearing tufts of sword-shapeJ leaves. Humboldt saw a famous specimen in Tenerirt'e. which at the time of his visit was 70 feel tall and 45 feet in circumference, and was estimated to be flOOO years old. It was destroyed by a storm in 1S6S. ' The Guanches worsliiped it, and had hol- lowed its trunk into a small sanctuary. Others of large size are reported from the Canary Islands and India. DRACHENFELS, drac'en-fels (Ger., Drag- on's Kncki. A mountain of Prussia, in the Siebengebirge Range ( q.v. ) , situated on the right bank of the Rhine, about eight miles southeast of Bonn, with an elevation of 1006 feet (Map: Prussia, B 3). It rises abruptly from the river, and is covered with brushwood almost to the top. whence the prospect is magnificent, extending down the river as far as Cologne, and having a charming foreground in Bonn, with its university, and numerous villages and time-worn castles. About half-way up the mountain is the cave, which, according to the legend, was occupied by the dragon slain by Siegfried. Of the mediaeval castle of Drachenfels, erected on the summit of the mountain, only a solitary tower remains. The mountain, which has been extensively quar- ried, is the property of the State, and can be ascended by rail. DRACHMA, drak'ma. DRACHM, dram, or DRAM I Lat.. from Gk.SpoxM'J, draclime, handful, from Spdrirav.tbiisseiii. to grasp) . The name of a Greek measure of weight and of a Greek coin. The measure of weight was equal to six small bars (o^oXolt or a handful : 100 drachmas formed a mina and 0000 a talent. The weight varied somewhat in different places and at ditterent times, but. as used in trade, seems to have been from 6 to 6.5 grams. The silver coin called drachma was the ordinary unit of the ancient Greek monetary system. Here also there were local differences; but two main systems are clearly marked — the .Eginetan, with a drachma of about 6.3 grams, or frequently somewhat less: and the Euboic- Attic, with a drachma of about 4.3 grams of pure silver, or about 18 cents in the United States standard coinage. Thus, the Attic mina was worth about SIS. and the Attic talent about $1030. The drachma is also the name of the monetary unit in modern Greece. Since 1867, when Greece joined the Latin L'nion. it has been of the same weight and fineness as the French franc. In the British system of weights there were, till recently, two drachms or drams — the avoirdupois dram, equal to 27^j^ troy grains, and the apothecaries' dram (not now used), equal to GO troy grains, or % of an ounce troy. DRACHMAN. driin'man. Bernard (1861—). An American ral)l)i and author, born in Xew York City. He graduated at Columbia in 1882, studied at Breslau. and became a rabbi in Bres- lau in 18S5. In 1887 he was appointed professor of biblical exegesis and Hebrew philosophy in the Jewish Theological Seminary of Xew York, and in 1889 dean of the seminary and rabbi of the Congresation 'Zichron Kphraim.' He is one of the few American rabbis to support consistently the traditional .Tiidaistic faith. His ptiblications include DiV fltfUunn und Redpiitiintj den Jrhiida ffajjufi in ^fr Gexrhirhte der hebriiiarhfn Gram- matik (1885). and a translation into English of S. R. Hirsch's German work, The ineteeti. Let- ters of Ben Vziel. DRACHMANN, dniti'mjin. Holcieb (1846—). A Danish |ioet. dramatist, and novelist of re- markable fertility and protean versatility, being royalist and socialist, realist and romantic, radi- cal and orthodox, national and cosmopolitan, everything by starts and nothing long, through 46 volumes. He is best in descriptions of the sea and of sailor and fisher life, having been at one time a marine painter of some promi.se. Charac- teristic works are the partly autobiographical Condemned (1890); Songs by the Sea (1877); On a Sailor's Word (1878) : and From the Fron- tier (1871). Sacred Fire (1900) is thought his best book. DRA'CO (Lat.. from Gk. ApaKuv, Druhon). An Athenian legislator. It was he who, as Thes- mothete, in B.C. 621 put into written and codified form the common law of Athens. To a later age this legislation bore the stamp of severity and cruelty, it being said of the laws that they were written, not in ink, but in blood. In every case, no matter what the offense, the penalty was death. We are not, however, to assume that Draco was more severe than his age: he simply put in writing the ordinances that the archons had been accustomed to enforce without writing, and the old Attic common law, when thus reduced to writing, appeared har.sh and rigorous to a milder age. Connected with the legislation — but whether instituted by Draco or not is uncertain — was the court of appeal, the Ephetae, judges of life and death, whose number was fifty-one. These laws, except those on homicide, were re- pealed by Solon. Aristotle, in the Constitution of Athens, speaks of Draco as being also a consti- tutional reformer, ascribing to him, among other measures, the following: the extension of politi- cal rights to all who were able to provide them- selves with arms at their own expense, the insti- tution of a council, or Boule, of 401 members, and the regulation of the qualifications required of aspirants for the various offices. Draco is said to have met his death at .Egina. being stifled in the theatre by the garments thrown upon him by the people as a mark of respect. Consult Holm, Griechisehe Geschichte. vol. i. (Berlin. 1886). DRA'CO. A constellation in the Northern Hemisphere. The star 7 Draeonis is celebrated as the one used by Bradley (q.v.) in discovering the aberration of light (q.v.) . It is a bright star, nearly in the solstitial colure. and consequently the minor axis of the small aberrational ellipse, which its apparent place describes in the heavens, lies in the meridian at its transit. Moreover, at the two equinoxes, when its apparent place is at the extremities respectively of this minor axis, it can be observed on the meridian at one equinox about sunrise, and at the other about sunset, so that both observations may be made without the interference of a too-bright daylight. These two observations, therefore, are easily taken, and the difference in the north polar distance which they give is the minor axis of the ellipse described by the apparent place of the star. DRACONTITJM, dnVkon'shi-um. See Skunk- C.Ill!.i.F.. DRACONTIUS, dnikon'shl-fls, Blossits .T^MiLil'S. A Latin poet who lived and prac- ticed as an advocate at Carthage during the lat-
